First time in a Dark Sky Preserve

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2dub

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So I went to Moab and While I wasn't officially in The Canyonlands Dark-sky Preserve I was in Deadhorse Point right next door. I'm from the east coast and our light pollution is just horrible. I was stunned to st the night sky in all it's glory on a clear moonless night. The darker picture is from my phone, no tripod and a 3 second exposure. The brighter is also from my phone with a 5 second exposure and no tripod. Anything over 5 sec exposure didn't come out that great without a tripod.

20210627_230036.jpg20210627_225718.jpg
 
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roots66

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Great pics. Yes, it's amazing how bright a truely dark sky is.
 
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Those are actually pretty good photos for 1. cell phone and 2. hand-held! Did you brace the phone on anything, like a table or the hood of the vehicle? Any post-processing? Thanks for sharing!
 
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Another Dark Sky Preserve to put on the list is Great Basin National Park, which hosts an astronomy festival in September every year. Amateur astronomers bring their telescopes and set up a star-gazing park for everyone to look through their "amateur" rigs. You will not believe how elaborate some of them are. Here's a sample from our visit in 2018. 14mm, f2.8, 25" ,3200 ISO.
GreatBasin01.jpeg
 
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2dub

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Mustang03 said:
Those are actually pretty good photos for 1. cell phone and 2. hand-held! Did you brace the phone on anything, like a table or the hood of the vehicle? Any post-processing? Thanks for sharing!
Click to expand...
Thank you.

In hind sight I should have braced against something more stable even if it was a tree or something. Of the dozens of pics I took these were among the best. I found a fairly clear area and was sitting with the phone on my knee and holding it with both hands. I varied between holding it tightly and loosly to minimaze the movement. Some were extremely blurry.

No post processing just my Galaxy 20+ set to pro mode (I'm definately not a pro) and played with the shutter speed. Night mode surprisingly came out quite poorly.

Next trip I'll have a nice tripod with me...
 
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2dub

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Mustang03 said:
Another Dark Sky Preserve to put on the list is Great Basin National Park, which hosts an astronomy festival in September every year. Amateur astronomers bring their telescopes and set up a star-gazing park for everyone to look through their "amateur" rigs. You will not believe how elaborate some of them are. Here's a sample from our visit in 2018. 14mm, f2.8, 25" ,3200 ISO.
Click to expand...
While I don't have a DSLR or anything yet, I want to learn how to use one and what all the settings are and what they mean and how to take stunning pictures like yours.
 
MazeVX

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Great pictures! Amazing what phones can do today... I'm looking forward spending a night in one of our rare dark areas hopefully soon!
 
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2dub said:
Thank you.

In hind sight I should have braced against something more stable even if it was a tree or something. Of the dozens of pics I took these were among the best. I found a fairly clear area and was sitting with the phone on my knee and holding it with both hands. I varied between holding it tightly and loosly to minimaze the movement. Some were extremely blurry.

No post processing just my Galaxy 20+ set to pro mode (I'm definately not a pro) and played with the shutter speed. Night mode surprisingly came out quite poorly.

Next trip I'll have a nice tripod with me...
Click to expand...
It wouldn't surprise me if the photos you took while holding the phone tightly turned out to be the more blurry ones. Gripping causes tension, which causes tremor... like marksmanship with a rifle. I would recommend a tripod for sure. Even a small one for your phone will yield an improvement.

I've been using a DSLR for a few years. Go for a nice middle-of-the-road camera body and put your money into the lenses if you decide to go there. But beware! That first f/2.8 glass is a "gateway" drug! Kidding aside, there are lots of free resources on night sky photography that can get you up and shooting in no time. Makes a nice hobby to go with overlanding, too.

Thanks for sharing your photos and keep it up!
 
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I'm so jealous, first 3 times I went to a dark sky preserve was all a new moon and one harvest moon. the moon was so bright you could walk without a flashlight
 
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